As we celebrate the start of another year, many of us take time to reflect, create goals and make resolutions. The beginning of the year is a great time to do this and we feel like we have the opportunity for both a clean slate and a fresh start. While Mitch Joel’s book Ctrl Alt Delete was released more than six months ago, the topic of making a fresh start and rebooting both business and career is timely.

Mitch Joel is a marketing expert who has run his own agency (Twist Image) for more than ten years and is an influential blogger at Six Pixels of Separation. If you’ve visited here before, you know that his weekly podcast is one of my favorites. He’s a great interviewer with a keen marketing mind and he always has a grasp on what’s happening in the world of marketing, business and technology.

Ctrl Alt Delete is a book divided into two sections: the first part focuses on how businesses need to and are currently rebooting. The second, focuses on us, the business and marketing professional.

In the first section, Joel describes how brands are shifting toward more direct relationships with consumers. He uses Apple and their retail stores as an example and notes that “Apple didn’t start in the retail business to compete with other consumer electronics stores; they went into retail for the direct relationship with their customers.”

One way businesses, brands and organizations create more direct relationships is through social media and the creation of their own media channels. Red Bull is a great example of this.

Another way brands are rebooting is by shifting from a broadcast mindset to one where immediate value is being provided to consumers. A prime example of this is when brands use smartphone apps to provide immediate value to its customers at a time when they need it. Some of the brands that stand out include LEGO, Nationwide Insurance, Proctor & Gamble and Nike.

Joel also shares insights on how brands use a wealth of data to target and attract customers and the shift to a one-screen world (a world where television, computer and smartphone screens are beginning to be used by everyone for the same purpose).

Information in this first section gives readers a better understanding of what’s happening in the world of business and a clue about what’s about to happen.

In the second section, Joel provides practical steps for marketing and business pros to reboot and stay relevant in the ever-shifting world of work.

First, Joel encourages readers to take a digital-first posture. In Joel’s mind this means that, “the first place your consumers go when making a business decision is to their computers, smartphones and/or tablets. This should be your default posture, as well.” He understands this is not an easy task for some marketers…but consumers are already there.

He also encourages us to take a more “squiggly” career path. The days of working at one company are disappearing and the new normal is for the average worker to have several different career changes over a lifetime. This can be very unsettling and uncertain. What I enjoyed about Joel’s perspective is that he sees this uncertainty as a positive and that it offers workers the opportunity to focus on projects and work they’re passionate about. Through his own experience, he describes this uncertainty in a glass-half full manner.

Joel also provides a plethora of valuable tools and suggestions for ways that we, as business and marketing professionals, can make ourselves more marketable. These suggestions are helpful and likely to get readers excited about the possibilities ahead.

He doesn’t promise this will be easy…but the opportunity for career success and satisfaction is there if we’re ready to embrace it.

As a marketing professional who has adopted a digital mindset, I enjoyed Ctrl Alt Delete. If you’re a marketing and/or business professional who’s not quite sure about what’s ahead but looking for the best ways to prepare for this uncertainty, pick up a copy of Ctrl Alt Delete. It’s a quick and informative read.

How about you…as a professional, what new skills have you learned to stay ahead in your industry? I’d love to hear about them.

A couple weeks ago, I worked a graduation event at a local university. At the event, I met a woman who was providing a sign language interpretation of the commencement ceremony. We had a chance to talk and I was truly impressed with how she got her job and, essentially, built her career as a sign language interpreter for the hearing impaired.

“I had been working as an executive assistant for a number of years and then got laid off. Luckily, I had decided to take some sign language classes and had been working part-time as a sign language interpreter. I had trouble finding a new (executive assistant) job…so I started doing sign language interpretation full-time. That was 20 years ago.”

Sharp as a tack, this woman told me she was in her late 60’s. I would have never guessed. Talking with her, I was impressed at her ability to create new opportunities for herself. We talked briefly about how many seasoned job hunters experience age-ism and other perceived biases in their search. Whether this was the case or not, she was not ready to let herself become a victim of her circumstances.

Back in 1999, one of the most respected business writers, Tom Peters, wrote in his The Brand You 50 book (pg. 4) that the white collar revolution was over. He also boldly proclaimed, “I believe that 90+ percent of white collar jobs will disappear or be reconfigured beyond recognition. Within 10 to 15 years.”

Statistically, I don’t know how our country’s current job situation compares with Peters’ prediction. But there is no doubt things have changed in a dramatic way in the work world in the past few years.

Some people that have re-invented themselves in an ever-changing industry are musicians, specifically 80’s rock-n-roll musicians. These musicians are dealing not only with a changing business model, but also changing musical tastes. While some of these musicians may be perfectly content to perform at smaller venues (including neighborhood and local outdoor festivals) or disappear altogether, other musicians have created new opportunities for themselves.

One such musician is guitar player George Lynch, formerly of 80’s hair metal band Dokken. While Lynch is considered by many as one of rock’s greatest guitar players, the market for his music has changed. The days of filling arenas and outdoor stadiums may be over, but Lynch continues to put on guitar clinics around the world and play smaller venues with his band and earn a living in different ways. He has endorsed ESP guitars for more than 25 years and continues to develop his own line of guitar pickups, amplifiers, effects and guitar cables. Lynch is also working on a film project called Shadowtrain, which features a group of musicians as they visit native American Indian reservations in the southwest and explore their history and ways to improve living conditions there.

Another musician who found fame in the early 80s is founder/guitarist/manager of Twisted Sister, Jay Jay French. In addition to his work with Twisted Sister, French has recently produced music for other musicians and created The Pinkburst Project, which raised money for the Ocular Immunology and Uveitis Foundation. Later this year, French is scheduled to speak at leadership expert Steve Farber‘s Extreme Leadership Summit.

“At the end of the day, Rock and Roll is a business with universal business rules. You need to posses the ability to look inside yourself, be honest with what you see, re-invent and then re-apply. And be fully prepared to get knocked down again” — Jay Jay French

I find French’s statement to be applicable for not only 80’s rock musicians, but also for those in transition or unhappy with their current job situations. I also find it refreshing that a tribe of people such as Pam Slim, Jonathan Fields, Christine Kane and numerous others have made it their mission to help us get to a better place.

Back in the 80’s, French’s Twisted Sister proclaimed, “We’re not going to take it.” Today, as exemplified by the entrepreneurial spirits of George Lynch, Jay Jay French and countless others, we don’t need to take it, either.
How about you: have you taken steps in your life to create new career opportunities? Do you know someone who has? I’d love to hear about it…
Creative commons photo courtesy of Jason Reidy.

If you go to a party or networking event with a lot of people you don’t know, chances are you’ll get asked the dreaded question: “so what do you do for a living?” If you’re fortunate to do work that you enjoy and get paid reasonably well, there’s a good chance you’ll give an enthusiastic answer that describes what you do. If you’re between jobs or hate your job (or you’re just plain burned out), you’ll likely keep your answer short or change the subject altogether.

But how often do you go to a party and see someone’s face light up when they talk about their job?

I bet it’s not often.

We get comfortable in our unfulfilling jobs. We settle. We accept our situations. We often don’t risk our present day survival for an opportunity to thrive and be happy. And we often focus on the negative aspects of the job.

Believe me, I’ve been there and have lived this reality, myself.

It’s time for all of us to be able to go to that party and light up the room with our work stories. It’s time for our stories to inspire action and influence others to take their own positive actions. Our world and our families need us to be happy and fulfilled.

Which brings me to the video below. I stumbled upon this video a few days ago and was sucked in, first of all, by the quality of the shots and the awesome scenery in and around San Francisco. But as I continued watching, I was sucked in by his work story. I love how he admits that people think he’s a little nuts. I also enjoy that he acknowledges he’s not making the big bucks, but says he’s happy and fulfilled anyway. And as an avid cyclist who rides a Cannondale, it was good to see him riding the same bike brand that brings me so much joy every summer.